GIFT   OF 


8061'IZ  WlVd 

'A  'K  ' 


MUNICIPAL  SOCIALISM 


The  Conservative  Victory 


in  Cleveland 


By  H.  T.  NEWCOMB 


Of   the    Bar   of   the    District    of    Columbia, 

Author  of  "Railway  Economics,"  "The  Postal  Deficit," 

"Some    Consequences   of    the    Trust    Movement,"    "A   Study   in 

Municipal  Socialism,"    "  Some   Recent   Phases   of  the   Labor  Problem," 

'The  Work  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,"  "Who  Own  the  Railroads?' 

"The  Regulation  of  Interstate  Railways,"  "The  Federal  Courts  and  the 

Orders  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,"   Railway  Rate 

Regulation  in  Foreign  Countries,"  etc.,  etc. 


PRESS  OF    GEORGE  E.  HOWARD 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 


MUNICIPAL  SOCIALISM 


The  Conservative  Victory 


in  Cleveland 

cST 


By  H.  T.  NEWCOMB 

M 

Of   the    Bar   of   the    District    of    Columbia, 

Author  of  "Railway  Economics,"  "The  Postal  Deficit," 

•'Some    Consequences   of    the    Trust    Movement,"    "A   Study   in 

Municipal   Socialism,"    "  Some    Recent    Phases   of   the   Labor   Problem," 

'The  Work  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,"  "Who  Own  the  Railroads?" 

"The  Regulation  of  Interstate  Railways,"   "The  Federal  Courts  and  the 

i 
Orders  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,"  Railway  Rate 

Regulation  in  Foreign  Countries,"  etc.,  etc. 


PRESS  OF    GEORGE  E.  HOWARD 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

1905 


•V 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The   Personal   Element    5 

Mayor  Johnson's  Waning  Popularity   7 

The   Question   Submitted    7 

Results  in    Cleveland  and  Other   Cities   Compared   10 

Militant    Conservatism    12 

A    Far-reaching    Program    13 

The  Line  of  Least  Resistance   15 

Democratic   Opposition    16 

The  Fight  Begun    17 

Real   Needs   Neglected    19 

The  Estimates  Submitted   22 

The   Opposition   Slumbers 23 

Civic  Consciousness  Aroused    27 

The   Chamber   of   Commerce    30 

Business  Men  in  Opposition   31 

Cleveland's    Immediate    Needs    33 

Rough    Riding    34 

The  Spoils  System  at  Work 36 

A  Flank  Movement  by  the  Mayor 38 

The  Special  Election  Stratagem  Foiled  39 

A  Full  Vote  Insured  41 

Methods  of  the  Campaign   42 

An  Absurd   Misrepresentation    43 

"Bonds   and    Taxes"    44 

A  Decisive  Victory    46 

The  Personal  Element  Remains    49 

Three  Easy  Lessons  50 


327502 


MUNICIPAL  SOCIALISM: 

The    Conservative    Victory    in    Cleveland' 


By  H.  T.  NEWCOMB 

Of  the  Bar  of  the  District  of  Columbia 


THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT 

The  story  of  the  recent  defeat  of  the  project  to  erect  a 
public  electric  lighting  and  power  plant  in  the  city  of  Cleve- 
land and  to  inaugurate  competition  between  the  city  and 
those  of  its  tax-paying  citizens  who  are  interested  in  the 
electric  lighting  business  now  established  there,  will  not  be 
understood  unless  it  is  illuminated  by  the  details  of  its 
personal  and  political  relations.  The  contest  was  charged 
with  the  personal  element  from  the  beginning,  for  it  com- 
menced when  Mr.  Tom  L.  Johnson  resumed  his  political 

*The  writer  of  this  paper  desires  to  explain  that  he  was  not  an 
impartial  observer  of  the  events  it  chronicles.  He  was  glad  to  accept 
an  invitation  to  participate  in  the  active  opposition  to  the  proposed 
public  electric  plant  not  only  because  he  regards  political  ownership 
as  vicious  in  principle,  but  also  because  it  appeared  that  in  the  case 
of  Cleveland  there  were  particular  objections  which  ought  to  lead 
even  the  advocates  of  that  principle  to  oppose  Mayor  Johnson's 
project. 


O  MUNICIPAL    SOCIALISM 

residence  in  Cleveland,  a  city  which  he  had  represented  in 
the  Federal  Congress  before  he  abandoned  it  for  New 
York,  and  having  invested  his  millions  of  capital  so  as  to 
allow  ample  time  for  other  than  financial  and  industrial  ac- 
tivities, announced  that  he  would  devote  the  balance  of  his 
life  to  an  effort  to  secure  the  application  of  the  Henry 
George  system  of  taxation.  It  became  political  when,  very 
soon  after  this  announcement,  the  local  leaders  of  the 
Democratic  party  of  Cleveland  made  Mr.  Johnson  their 
candidate  for  mayor  and  permitted  him  to  control  the  plat- 
form and  the  policies  of  that  organization.  From  his  nom- 
ination for  the  mayoralty,  early  in  1901,  to  his  defeat  for 
the  governorship  in  November,  1903,  Mr.  Johnson  was  the 
dominant  force  in  the  Democracy  of  Cleveland;  he  drove 
from  its  councils  the  conservative  leaders  under  whom  it 
had  functioned  as  a  vigilant  and  virile  minority  organiza- 
tion and  he  made  it  the  party  of  extreme  radicalism.  As  an 
immediate  consequence  of  his  course,  many  Democrats  of 
the  old  school  were  driven  into  acting  with  the  Republi- 
cans, but  this  loss  was,  for  a  time,  more  than  offset  by  the 
large  number  of  Republicans  who  were  allured  to  the 
temporary  support  of  the  program  which  contained  so 
many  specious  promises.  This  particularly  accounts  for  Mr. 
Johnson's  second  election  as  mayor,  for  although  during  his 
first  candidacy  he  received  considerable  support  which  was 
based  upon  a  superficial  acquaintance  with  his  career  as  a 
business  man,  this  support  had  been  withdrawn  before  his 
second  election  and  his  majority  at  the  polls  in  April,  1903, 


MAYOR    JOHNSON  S    WANING    POPULARITY  7 

represents  the  preponderance,  at  that  time,  of  the  radical 
voters  of  Cleveland  over  the  practically  unanimous  body  of 
its  stable  citizenship  and  its  substantial  business  men. 

MAYOR  JOHNSON'S  WANING  POPULARITY 

The  votes  received  by  the  various  candidates  for  the 
mayoralty  of  Cleveland  at  the  election  of  April  i,  1901, 
aggregated  66,568,  of  which  Mr.  Johnson  received  35,817 
or  53.81  per  cent.  Two  years  later  the  vote  was  68,571  and 
Mayor  Johnson  received  36,060  or  52.59  per  cent  of  the  ag- 
gregate. Six  months  later  the  referendum  on  municipal 
ownership  evoked  the  suffrages  of  54,625  citizens  of  Cleve- 
land of  whom  but  24,193  or  44.29  per  cent  voted  on  the  side 
advocated  by  the  Mayor.  At  the  same  election  utilized  for 
the  submission  of  the  lighting  project  Mayor  Johnson  was 
the  Democratic  candidate  for  governor  of  Ohio  and  his 
vote  in  Cuyahoga  county,  in  which  Cleveland  is  located, 
fell  some  8,500  below  that  of  the  successful  Republican 
candidate. 

THE  QUESTION  SUBMITTED 

The  precise  question  submitted  to  the  voters  of  Cleveland 
on  November  3,  1903,  was  whether  they  would  authorize 
a  bond  issue  of  $400,000  for  the  purpose  of  constructing  an 
electric  lighting  plant.  It  was  commonly  understood  that  this 
would  no  more  than  provide  for  an  experimental  plant 
which,  however,  would  be  utilized  to  supply  light  for  both 
public  and  private  use  in  a  certain  limited  section  of  the 


8  MUNICIPAL   SOCIALISM 

city.  There  was  good  ground  for  believing  that  the  plant 
proposed  by  the  Mayor  could  not  be  built  for  the  sum  named, 
but  that  point  will  be  discussed  hereafter.  The  referendum 
on  this  project  was  secured  by  its  opponents  after  its  advo- 
cates had  exhausted  the  means  at  their  command,  both  legal 
and  political,  for  committing  the  city  to  it  without  a  direct 
expression  of  the  will  of  the  people.  Before  a  referendum 
could  be  forced,  the  opponents  of  municipal  socialism  had  to 
show  the  illegality  of  an  ordinance  authorizing  a  bond  issue 
to  build  an  electric  lighting  and  power  plant,  which  had 
been  adopted  by  a  unanimous  vote  of  the  City  Council ;  and 
to  arouse  enough  opposition  in  the  same  legislative  body  to 
secure  the  defeat  of  a  second  ordinance,  in  which  the  word 
"power"  did  not  appear,  which  was  pressed  by  every  device 
which  the  chief  magistrate  of  a  city  can  use  to  overwhelm 
opposition  to  his  policies.  Then,  when  forced  to  permit  a 
referendum,  the  plan  of  the  supporters  of  the  city  adminis- 
tration was  to  hold  it  under  a  law  which  would  have  ren- 
dered a  full  vote  impossible.  An  injunction  preventing  the 
execution  of  this  design  was  the  final  means  by  which  a 
complete  expression  of  the  will  of  the  city  was  made  pos- 
sible. 

The  verdict  recorded  on  November  3  was  against  munic- 
ipal socialism  by  a  vote  of  30,432  in  the  negative  to  24,193 
in  the  affirmative.  As  the  approval  of  two-thirds  of  those 
voting  upon  the  proposition  would  have  been  necessary  in 
order  to  permit  the  bond  issue,  it  is  evident  that  the  margin 
by  which  the  conservative  citizenship  of  Cleveland  won  this 


THE   QUESTION    SUBMITTED  9 

substantial  victory  was  not  the  majority  of  6,239  over  the 
advocates  of  a  public  lighting  plant,  but  rather  the  difference 
of  12,224  votes  between  those  cast  in  favor  of  the  measure 
and  the  number  necessary  for  its  enactment.  Thus  while 
the  opponents  of  municipal  socialism  cast  55.71  per  cent  of 
the  total  vote  polled,  they  were  successful  by  a  margin 
amounting  to  22.38  per  cent  of  that  total.  It  is  interesting  to 
compare  this  result  with  the  popular  vote  of  15,282  to  1,245 
by  which,  ten  years  earlier,  the  neighboring  city  of  Detroit 
authorized  the  erection  of  a  municipal  electric  lighting  plant. 
In  Chicago,  in  1902,  139,999  voters  approved  the  principle 
of  public  ownership  "of  the  gas  and  electric  lighting  plants, 
said  plants  to  furnish  light,  heat  and  power  for  public  and 
private  use,"  and  only  21,364  declared  themselves  in  opposi- 
tion. While  the  Cleveland  contest  was  in  progress,  the  citi- 
zens of  San  Francisco  voted  on  a  proposal  to  acquire  a  street 
railway  and  to  issue  $710,000  in  3^  per  cent  bonds  therefor, 
the  proposition  being  defeated  because  favored  by  less  than 
two-thirds  of  the  voters,  although  it  received  14,351  affirma- 
tive votes  to  10,790  in  the  negative.  On  the  face  of  these  re- 
turns it  appears  that  in  Cleveland  but  forty-four  in  each 
one  hundred  legal  voters  are  in  favor  of  municipal  social- 
ism, while  in  Detroit  it  is  favored  by  ninety-two  in  each 
one  hundred,  in  Chicago  by  eighty-seven  in  each  one  hun- 
dred, and  in  San  Francisco  by  fifty-seven  in  each  one 
hundred.  Of  course,  these  figures  do  not  tell  the  entire 
story.  It  is  altogether  likely  that  the  latent  spirit  of 
conservatism  was  just  as  extensive  in  Detroit,  Chicago  and 


10 


MUNICIPAL   SOCIALISM 


San  Francisco  prior  to  these  more  or  less  complete  expres- 
sions of  popular  ideals  and  purposes  as  in  Cleveland,  and 
that  the  chief  difference  is  really  in  the  degree  in  which  the 
dormant  opposition  to  radical  departures  from  the  govern- 
mental practices  which  have  the  approval  of  American  ex- 
perience was  aroused  and  made  effective.  Whether  this 
conclusion  is  correct  or  not,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the 
importance  of  the  municipal  ownership  referendum  ap- 
peared much  greater  to  the  citizens  of  Cleveland  than  to 
those  of  the  other  cities  named.  This  is  shown  by  the  fol- 
lowing table  in  which  the  aggregate  number  of  votes  cast 
and  those  on  each  side  are  compared  with  the  number  of 
possible  voters : 

RESULTS  IN  CLEVELAND  AND  OTHER  CITIES  COMPARED 


Per  cent  of 

Number 
of 

vote  cast 

males  over 
21  voting 

Date  of 

males 

City 

referendum 

over 

Per 

21  years 

cent 

•  1  Against 

old 

Num- 

of 

muni-^  J-QQJJJQJ. 

ber 

males 
over 

21 

own- 
ership 

pal  own- 
ership 

Cleveland  

1903,  Nov.  3 

*III,522 

54,625 

48.98 

21.69 

27.29 

San  Francisco. 

1903,  Oct.  8 

*i28>985 

25,Hi 

19.49 

11.13 

8.36 

Chicago  .... 

1902,  Apr.  i 

*5H,048 

161,363 

3L57 

27.39 

4.18 

Detroit  

1893,  Apr.  3 

t  55,476 

16,527 

29.79 

27.55 

2.24 

*  Census  of  1900 


f  Census  of  1890 


RESULTS    IN    CLEVELAND   AND   OTHER    CITIES    COMPARED    1 1 

Apparently,  the  active  discussion  of  municipal  owner- 
ship in  Cleveland,  which  resulted  from  the  vigorous  cam- 
paign made  against  it,  was  the  means  of  bringing  out  a  much 
larger  proportion  of  the  total  vote  than  is  customary  in  such 
contests.  It  is  noteworthy  also  that  the  proportion  of  the 
total  possible  vote  cast  against  municipal  ownership  was 
very  greatly  increased  while  the  affirmative  proportion  was 
considerably  lower  than  in  either  Chicago  or  Detroit. 

At  any  rate,  these  figures  make  the  assumption  that  the 
real  popular  spirit,  in  these  four  great  cities,  is  substantially 
the  same  in  regard  to  municipal  ownership  sufficiently  plaus- 
ible to  justify  making  it  the  basis  of  an  inquiry  whether  the 
widely  divergent  results  that  have  been  recorded  can  be 
explained  in  any  way  which  reconciles  them  with  such  a 
working  hypothesis.  They  will  be  successfully  reconciled  if 
it  appears  that  the  principal  difference  lies  in  the  opportu- 
nities afforded  the  voters  to  acquaint  themselves  with  the 
nature  and  importance  of  the  questions  at  issue.  At  the  out- 
set it  should  be  recognized  that  the  citizens  of  Cleveland 
had  unusual  reason  to  be  satisfied  with  existing  conditions 
and  that  the  demand  upon  the  resources  of  the  city  for  the 
development  of  its  ordinary  activities  was  admittedly  great. 
The  private  corporation  which  supplies  electric  light  and 
power  to  public  and  private  consumers  in  that  city  has 
merited  general  approval  by  rendering  excellent  service  at 
reasonable  rates,  and  there  have  been  no  serious  scandals  in 
connection  with  any  of  the  public  service  corporations  of  the 


12  MUNICIPAL    SOCIALISM 

city.  On  the  other  hand,  when  the  people  of  Chicago  voted 
on  a  similar  question  they  had  become  accustomed  to  alle- 
gations that  influences  corrupting  to  the  political  activities  of 
the  city  and  state  emanated  from  some  of  its  public  service 
corporations ;  and  when  it  arose  in  Detroit,  two  private  elec- 
tric lighting  companies  having  recently  contested  bitterly  for 
the  field,  the  victorious  corporation  had  signalized  its  suc- 
cess by  making  exhorbitant  demands  upon  the  city  in  regard 
to  payments  for  necessary  street  lights. 

MILITANT  CONSERVATISM 

No  such  effort  to  hold  their  government  within  the  fields 
of  activity  already  permitted  to  it  was  ever  made  by  the  con- 
servative citizens  of  any  other  great  American  municipality 
as  was  made  in  Cleveland.  The  educational  campaign,  begun 
in  June,  was  pressed  so  persistently  that  it  is  scarcely  possible 
that  Cleveland  contained  a  single  legal  voter  who  was  not 
afforded  an  opportunity  to  acquaint  himself  with  the  argu- 
ments against  the  project.  Nor  was  the  campaign  in  any 
way  one-sided.  Mayor  Johnson  and  several  of  his  ablest 
lieutenants  devoted  a  great  deal  of  attention  to  this  topic  in 
nearly  all  of  their  speeches,  and  the  former  repeatedly  ad- 
vised his  hearers  that  the  erection  of  a  city  electric  lighting 
plant  was  more  important  to  the  voters  of  Cleveland  than  his 
own  election  to  the  office  of  governor  of  Ohio. 


A    FAR-REACHING    PROGRAM  13 


A  FAR-REACHING  PROGRAM 

It  has  been  said  that  the  effort  to  commit  the  city  of  Cleve- 
land to  a  policy  of  municipal  socialism  dates  from  the  an- 
nouncement by  Honorable  Tom  L.  Johnson,  some  time  prior 
to  his  first  election  as  mayor,  in  1901,  that  henceforth  he 
would  devote  his  life  to  an  effort  to  spread  the  doctrines  of 
the  late  Henry  George  and  to  secure  the  substitution  of  the 
"single  tax"  for  the  present  revenue  systems  of  the  municipal, 
state  and  national  governments  of  the  United  States.  Mr. 
Johnson,  as  was  explained  some  time  ago  by  his  friend  and 
adviser,  Dr.  Edward  W.  Bemis,  now  superintendent  of  the 
waterworks  of  Cleveland,  in  the  significant  sentences  which 
are  quoted  below,  believes  in  municipal  ownership  because 
he  believes  in  the  "single  tax"  and  regards  the  former  as  an 
essential  element  in  the  latter  system.  Writing  of  "Detroit's 
Efforts  to  Own  Her  Street  Railways"  in  "Municipal  Af- 
fairs" for  September,  1899,  Dr.  Bemis  said  of  Mr.  Johnson 
that: 

"*  *  *  his  own  special  interest  in  the  matter  is  because 
of  his  belief  in  city  ownership  and  operation  of  street  rail- 
ways as  an  opening  for  the  gradual  introduction  of  the 
single  tax,  in  which  cause  he  is  a  well-known  enthusiast. 
It  is  generally  known  that  extensions  of  street  railways  have 
such  an  obvious  effect  in  raising  land  values  that  there 
would  be  little  difficulty  under  public  ownership  of  securing 
special  assessments  on  this  increased  land  value  for  the 


14  MUNICIPAL    SOCIALISM 

purpose  of  extensions  and  perhaps  ultimately  for  paying  all 
operating  expenses  so  that  every  one  could  ride  free  just 
as  tenants  of  an  office  building  are  charged  enough  rent  to 
permit  of  free  running  of  elevators."* 

Obviously,  the  election  to  the  mayoralty  of  a  great  city  of 
a  gentleman  holding  the  views  indicated  in  the  foregoing, 
especially  one  of  so  forceful  a  type  as  Mr.  Johnson  had 
shown  himself,  was  certain  to  arouse  interest  not  only  among 
those  who  would  like  to  enjoy  the  services  supplied  by 
quasi-public  corporations  without  expense  to  themselves, 
but  extending  also  to  those  who  might  be  called  upon  to 
pay  the  "special  assessments"  and  to  investors  in  the  secu- 
rities of  the  public  service  corporations  within  his  jurisdic- 
tion. 

The  new  mayor  of  Cleveland  was  confronted  by  the  fact 
that  the  laws  of  Ohio  do  not  authorize  municipalities  to 
undertake  the  business  of  street  railway  transportation.  His 
efforts  in  connection  with  this  service  have  therefore  been 
confined  to  the  attempted  reduction  of  fares  to  three  cents,  to 
an  attempt  to  induce  the  construction  of  lines  which  would 
compete  with  those  now  in  existence  and  to  raising  the  taxes 
of  the  latter. f 

*The  italics  are  the  present  writer's. 

fPossibly  even  these  efforts  should  be  regarded  as  in  the  general 
direction  of  political  ownership  for  Mayor  Johnson  is  probably  not 
unfamiliar  with  Dr.  Bemis's  suggestion  that:  "*  *  *  price  re- 
duction, however,  seems  legally  open  to  city  councils  and,  as  pre- 


THE    LINE   OF    LEAST    RESISTANCE  15 


THE  LINE  OF  LEAST  RESISTANCE 

In  the  lighting  field,  however,  there  was  no  obstacle  of  a 
legal  character  and  if  authority  to  issue  bonds  for  the  pur- 
pose could  be  secured  and  their  sale  effected,  there  would  be 
nothing  to  hinder  the  erection  of  a  city  electric  plant.  No 
official  public  steps  in  this  direction  were  taken  during  the 
first  term  of  two  years  to  which  Mr.  Johnson  was  elected, 
although  the  subject  was  known  to  be  receiving  considerable 
attention  from  the  Mayor  and  his  principal  subordinates. 
The  platform  on  which  the  city  was  carried  in  April,  1903, 
for  the  reelection  of  Mayor  Johnson,  however,  contained  the 
following,  the  last  clause  of  which  has  been  declared  to 
have  referred  to  an  electric  lighting  plant: 

"The  Democratic  party  of  Cleveland,  in  convention  as- 
sembled, asks  the  suffrages  of  the  voters  on  the  record  of  the 
present  administration.  It  has  been  characterized  by  a 
marked  awakening  of  interest  in  city  affairs.  Never  before 
has  there  been  so  full  an  appreciation  of  the  evils  of  private 
ownership  of  public  utilities ;  *  *  *  our  pledge  to  the 
people  is :  *  *  *  3.  That  we  will  build  and  operate  a 
municipal  lighting  plant.  *  *  *  " 

viously  suggested,  should  be  tried  as  a  preliminary  to  public  pur- 
chase of  the  plants;  because  such  regulation  of  price,  so  far  as  the 
courts  will  permit,  would  naturally  result  in  a  reduction  in  the  value 
of  the  securities  *  *  *  and  thus  render  easier  public  purchase." 
— See  article  entitled  "Regulation  or  Ownership"  in  "Municipal 
Monopolies,"  pp.  651-2. 


1 6  MUNICIPAL   SOCIALISM 

Another  declaration  of  the  same  platform  supports  the 
claim,  subsequently  put  forth  by  some  of  the  men  who  stood 
upon  it  as  candidates,  that  their  election  did  not  carry  a 
mandate  to  build  and  operate  a  city  electric  lighting  plant. 
This  declaration  follows: 

"The  issue  in  this  campaign  is  the  street  railroad  question. 
*  *  *  In  the  April  election  the  voter  must  choose  be- 
tween two  parties — the  one  already  pledged  in  its  platform 
to  a  complete  surrender  to  the  street  railroads  on  their  owrn 
terms;  the  other,  that  party  which  has  already  forced  some 
concessions  from  the  street  railroads,  and  which,  if  returned 
to  power,  will  secure  a  complete  victory  for  the  people."* 

DEMOCRATIC  OPPOSITION 

The  leading  Democratic  newspaper  of  Cleveland,  The 
Plain  Dealer,  editorially  discussed  the  contention  that  the 
Democratic  members  of  the  City  Council  were  bound  in 
honor  to  support  the  ordinance  providing  for  a  bond  issue  in 

*According  to  The  Plain  Dealer,  the  leading  Democratic  daily 
newspaper  of  Cleveland,  the  convention  which  adopted  the  platform 
containing  the  provisions  quoted  above  also  adopted  the  following 
"supplementary  resolution :" 

"Resolved,  That  the  executive  committee  of  the  Democratic  central 
committee  in  and  for  the  city  of  Cleveland,  be  authorized  to  levy 
an  assessment  upon  the  nominees  of  this  convention  for  the  different 
offices  to  be  nominated  therein  and  be  also  empowered  to  remove 
from  the  Democratic  ticket  the  names  of  all  such  nominees  who  fail 
to  pay  such  assessment  before  3  o'clock  p.  m.,  standard  time,  March 
18,  and  that  the  executive  committee  be  given  full  power  to  fill  all 
vacancies." 


THE    FIGHT    BEGUN  17 

order  to  build  an  electric  plant  .and  the  following,  from  its 
issue  of  August  2,  1903,  contains  its  conclusions : 

"The  claim  that  the  election  of  the  present  administration 
and  council  was  a  mandate  from  the  people  to  establish  a 
municipal  electric  lighting,  or  lighting  and  power  plant,  is  fal- 
lacious. The  voters  as  a  whole  did  not  so  understand  it  and 
had  no  such  purpose,  whatever  a  portion  of  them  might  have 
intended.  *  *  *  The  platform  itself  specifically  de- 
clared that  'the  issue  in  this  campaign  is  the  street  railway 
question.'  *  *  *  The  Plain  Dealer  distinctly  declared 
that  it  was  not  in  accord  with  Mayor  Johnson's  municipal 
ownership  ideas.  Thousands  of  citizens  who  helped  elect 
the  present  municipal  government  held  the  same  position 
*  *  *  the  people  of  Cleveland,  in  electing  the  present 
municipal  government,  did  not  give  it  a  mandate  to  adopt 
that  scheme.  They  expressed  themselves  by  their  votes 
to  be  in  favor  of  home  rule,  honest  and  efficient  government, 
and  equitable  taxation,  but  they  had  no  intention  of  com- 
mitting themselves  unreservedly  to  all  the  ideas  of  Mayor 
Johnson  and  Mr.  E.  W.  Bemis." 

THE  FIGHT  BEGUN 

Nevertheless,  the  reelection  of  Mayor  Johnson  was  imme- 
diately followed  by  efforts  to  inaugurate  the  municipal  own- 
ership policy.  The  first  meeting  of  the  newly-elected  City 
Council  took  place  on  Monday,  May  4,  1903,  and  as  soon  as 
it  had  organized,  it  listened  to  a  formal  address  from  the 
Mayor  in  which  he  strongly  urged  the  immediate  practical 
application  of  his  municipal  ownership  policy.  In  this  ad- 


l8  MUNICIPAL    SOCIALISM 

dress  the  council  was  warned  against  "the  oppressions  of 
certain  so-called  business  interests"  which,  it  was  explained, 
are  not  competitive  and  are  grounded  in  special  privilege. 
The  Mayor  asserted  that  these  interests  "have  no  natural 
affinity  for  legitimate  business  interests,"  and  that  those 
who  control  and  benefit  by  them  use  political  parties,  im- 
partially, in  such  ways  as  to  secure  pecuniary  gains  for  them- 
selves. One  of  the  ways  in  which  such  gains  are  secured, 
declared  the  Mayor,  is  through  unjust  exemptions  from  the 
full  burden  of  taxation,  but  while  the  city  must  strive  for  a 
better  taxing  system  the  evil  could  not  wholly  be  corrected 
in  any  way  except  by  bringing  all  public  utilities  under 
government  ownership.  Continuing,  the  Mayor  said : 

"Already  the  statutes  permit  cities  to  engage  in  the  busi- 
ness of  gas  and  electric  lighting  and  of  this  privilege  it  is  our 
duty  to  avail  ourselves  at  once.  Let  us  begin  with  an  electric 
lighting  plant  of  the  most  modern  type,  by  which  we  can 
produce  electricity  cheaply  for  street  lighting  and  in  addi- 
tion, can  give  to  the  people  in  their  houses  and  places  of 
business  the  benefit  of  electric  light  and  power  at  the  mini- 
mum of  cost.  As  that  experiment  proves  its  value,  the  same 
system  can  be  extended  over  the  entire  city." 

The  application  of  the  Merit  System  of  determining  ap- 
pointments to  office  and  the  promotion  and  retention  of 
those  employed  was  insisted  upon  as  an  essential  to  efficient 
administration  of  the  proposed  new  service  and  also  of  the 
water  department  in  which  such  a  system  was  said  to  have 


REAL    NEEDS    NEGLECTED  19 

been  already  established  although  admittedly  without  the 
sanction  of  any  statute  or  ordinance.*  Progress  in  this  direc- 
tion was  declared  to  be  especially  important : 

"*  *  *  in  view  of  the  probability  of  an  early  extension 
in  Cleveland  of  the  principle  of  municipal  ownership  and 
operation  to  all  public  utilities." 

REAL  NEEDS  NEGLECTED 

To  those  who  are  acquainted  with  the  municipal  condi- 
tions and  needs  of  Cleveland,  it  is  significant  that  the  Mayor's 
address  concerned  itself  solely  with  the  problems  of  home 
rule,  taxation,  and  municipal  ownership.  It  contained  no 
reference  to  the  need  of  a  better  water  supply,  more  sewers, 
better  fire  protection,  improved  facilities  for  crossing  the  old 
river  bed  which  so  effectively  separates  the  eastern  and 
western  portions  of  the  city,  a  more  extensive  wharfage 
system  or  new  public  buildings.  In  fact,  so  far  as  the  pur- 
poses of  the  Mayor  may  be  regarded  as  having  been  disclosed 

*Dr.  E.  W.  Bemis,  who  has  had  charge  of  the  water  department 
throughout  practically  all  of  Mr.  Johnson's  encumbency  of  the  office 
of  mayor,  did  make  an  effort  to  establish  a  merit  system.  In  so  doing 
he  incurred  the  ill  will  of  many  politicians,  some  of  whom  took 
occasion  immediately  after  the  election  of  1903  to  demand  his  dis- 
missal; a  demand  to  which  the  Mayor  declined  to  accede.  The  sys- 
tem in  force,  however,  did  not  go  far  enough  to  preclude  the  active 
participation  of  the  employees  of  the  water  department  in  every  stage 
of  the  campaign  for  a  municipal  electric  plant,  which  would  have 
been  made  an  adjunct  to  their  department,  and  there  are  other  indi- 
cations that  the  conditions  are  still  far  from  ideal. 


2O  MUNICIPAL   SOCIALISM 

in  this  address,  he  appears  to  have  been  interested  in  matters 
requiring  extensive  and  somewhat  spectacular  reconstruction 
of  state  and  municipal  policies  to  'the  complete  exclusion  of 
necessary  improvements  which  are  quite  within  the  ordinary 
scope  of  municipal  activities  and  the  existing  powers  of  the 
city  government.  How  far  it  would  be  safe  to  go  in  infer- 
ring an  actual  disregard  of  the  immediate  and  necessary  in 
favor  of  the  remote  and  questionable,  may  be,  in  some  de- 
gree, indicated  by  the  events  hereinafter  recorded  and  will 
appear  more  plainly  when  the  history  of  his  administra- 
tion is  complete.  Immediately  after  listening  to  the  Mayor's 
address,  the  council  received  from  him  a  special  message 
transmitting  a  report  from  Dr.  Bemis  concerning  the  plans 
for  the  proposed  plant.  These  plans  had  been  prepared  under 
the  direction  of  Dr.  Bemis,  who  was  aided  by  Mr.  Charles 
E.  Phelps,  a  consulting  electrical  engineer.  These  estimates 
called  for  a  direct  expenditure  of  $375,750  in  the  erection 
and  equipment  of  a  plant  consisting  of  two  units  of  1,000 
kilowatts  capacity  each,  which  would  generate  a  three-phase 
alternating  current  of  6,600  volts  at  60  cycles.  It  was  stated 
that  this  voltage  and  frequency  of  current  would  secure  the 
greatest  possible  combinations  for  both  street  lighting  and 
commercial  service,  and  that  the  plant  would  become  a  cen- 
tral generating  station  which,  with  the  addition  of  new  units 
from  time  to  time,  could  be  made  to  supply  the  entire  city. 
For  the  time  being  it  was  proposed,  however,  to  confine  the 
distribution  to  the  West  Side  of  Cleveland,  a  region  which 


REAL    NEEDS    NEGLECTED  21 

contains  3477  per  cent  of  the  city's  area  and  30.94  per  cent 
of  its  population*  and  to  the  publlic  buildings  on  the  East 
Side.  Dr.  Bemis's  statement  of  the  advantages  to  be  gained 
is  as  follows : 

"It  would  appear  that  with  the  city  in  possession  of  land 
and  of  the  building  for  the  generators  and  of  the  foundation 
of  a  modern  boiler  house,!  and  with  the  possibilities  of  com- 
bining the  water  and  electric  lighting  departments,  it  is  en- 
tirely practicable  for  us  to  build  a  thoroughly  up-to-date 
plant  at  a  moderate  cost,  and  thereafter  to  supply  the  West 
Side  and  the  public  buildings  on  the  East  Side  with  light  for 
public  and  domestic  and  commercial  uses  at  a  much  lower 
price  than  is  now  charged,  even  after  allowing  for  interest 
and  sinking-fund  charges.  It  seems  also  quite  possible  that 
such  a  modern  plant  at  our  Division-street  pumping  station 
could  sell  electricity  for  power  purposes  at  so  low  a  price  as 
to  be  of  great  advantage  to  many  manufacturers  along  the 
river  and  elsewhere." 

On  the  subject  of  prices,  Dr.  Bemis  said : 

"Mr.  Phelps  has  prepared  estimates  of  cost,  showing  that 
the  city  can  maintain  arc  lights  for  less  than  $55  per  year 
per  arc,  while  it  is  now  paying  $75,  and  even  more  impor- 
tant, it  can  sell  electrical  energy  for  commercial  uses  for 
about  four  cents  per  unit  or  kilowatt  hour.  The  published 
rates  to-day  vary  from  twelve  and  a  half  cents  per  unit,  ac- 

*On  the  basis  of  the  census  of  1900. 

fit  was  proposed  to  utilize  the  site  and  structure  of  an  abandoned 
pumping  station. 


22  MUNICIPAL   SOCIALISM 

cording  to  the  nature  and  amount  of  consumption  to  a  little 
above  five  cents  per  unit."* 

THE  ESTIMATES  SUBMITTED 

The  precise  figures  given  by  Mr.  Phelps  indicated  his  be- 
lief that  the  plant  he  proposed  would  be  able  to  supply  arc 
lights  at  an  operating  cost  of  $40  per  light  per  year  and 
with  a  capital  cost  of  $13.67  or  at  a  total  expense  of  $53.67. 
The  estimated  cost  of  constructing  and  equipping  the  plant 
follows : 

Steam  and  electrical  equipment $214,000.00 

Distributing   equipment 111,750.00 

Rebuilding      power-house,      including      coal- 
handling    apparatus 50,000.00 


Total    $375,750.00 

*The  corporation  now  selling  electric  light  in  Cleveland  uses  the 
two-rate  system.  Each  commercial  consumer  is  charged  at  i2l/2  cents 
per  unit  for  fifty  hours'  use  per  month  at  the  maximum  capacity  of 
his  installation,  and  for  the  excess  over  fifty  hours  at  five  cents  per 
unit  In  the  case  of  dwellings,  thirty  per  cent  of  the  maximum  in- 
stallation capacity  is  used  on  account  of  the  normal  variation  in  the 
load  factor  for  dwelling  houses.  The  theory  of  this  system  is  that 
the  capital  investment  of  a  central  station  plant  is  determined  by  the 
maximum  consumption  of  its  customers.  In  other  words,  there  must 
be  sufficient  generating  and  distributing  apparatus  to  supply  every 
one  with  all  the  lights  and  power  he  demands  at  the  same  instant. 
Assuming  the  average  duration  of  the  extreme  load  to  be  about  fifty 
hours  per  month,  it  follows  that  it  is  not  unfair  to  charge  a  larger 
proportion  of  the  capital  cost  against  this  use  particularly  as  this 
course  encourages  liberal  use  of  current  at  other  hours  when  its  cost 
to  the  company  is  scarcely  more  than  that  of  operation. 


THE    OPPOSITION    SLUMBERS  23 

Mr.  Phelps  also  gave  the  following  estimate  of  probable 
operating  expenses: 

General  expenses   $10,760.00 

Production    36,300.00 

Maintenance  of  distributing  equipment 6,740.00 

Maintenance  of  lamps 5>875.oo 

Repairs   and   renewals    7,240.00 


Total    $66,915.00 

Attention  will  be  called  at  another  point  in  this  paper  to 
certain  apparently  justifiable  criticisms  of  these  figures 
which,  for  the  present,  serve  merely  to  outline  the  proposi- 
tion submitted  to  the  Council.  The  most  significant  features 
of  that  proposition  will  be  recognized  in  the  indicated  inten- 
tion to  go  into  a  competitive  commercial  business  in  a  field 
already  occupied  by  a  private  corporation  and  to  sell  power, 
as  well  as  light,  to  private  users. 

THE  OPPOSITION  SLUMBERS 

An  ordinance  drawn  in  accordance  with  the  plans  de- 
scribed, and  providing  for  an  issue  of  $200,000  in  bonds  to 
begin  the  construction  of  the  plant,  was  introduced  at  the 
same  session  of  the  Council,  and  after  lying  on  the  table 
under  its  rules,  was  taken  up  and  adopted  by  a  unanimous 
vote  and  without  discussion  on  the  evening  of  May  n,  1903. 
The  Council  which  thus  complacently  sought  to  commit  the 
city  to  a  program  which  was  avowedly  to  go  far  in  the  di- 


24  MUNICIPAL   SOCIALISM 

rection  of  municipal  socialism  consisted  of  twenty-three 
members  of  the  Mayor's  party  and  nine  Republicans.  It  is 
particularly  noteworthy  that  although  the  Democratic  mem- 
bership was  sufficient  to  give  the  two-thirds  vote  required  to 
authorize  an  issue  of  bonds,  the  nine  Republican  members 
were  not  sufficiently  interested  to  register  the  opposition 
which  they  must  be  presumed  to  have  felt.  If  this  silent  ac- 
quiescence in  a  policy  which  at  a  later  date  they  vigorously 
and  successfully  resisted  is  to  be  attributed  to  a  belief,  on  the 
part  of  the  Republican  members,  that  the  majority  by  which 
the  Mayor  had  been  reelected  a  month  earlier  was  a  popular 
endorsement  of  municipal  ownership  and  a  consequent  re- 
luctance  to  seem  to  interpose  even  ineffective  opposition  to 
the  execution  of  the  people's  will,  the  conclusion  seems  to 
indicate  a  singular  lack  of  appreciation  of  the  real,  but  dor- 
mant, public  sentiment  as  subsequently  disclosed  by  the 
crushing  defeat  of  municipal  ownership  at  the  November 
election. 

The  adoption  of  the  ordinance  by  the  Council  seemed  to 
mark  the  beginning  of  municipal  socialism  in  Cleveland. 
Had  the  event  justified  this  conclusion,  it  would  have  offered 
abundant  opportunity  for  comment  concerning  the  frequent 
utter  absence  of  any  popular  realization  of  the  radical 
nature  of  social,  political  and  economic  changes  at  the  mo- 
ment when  the  definitive  step  is  taken.  Municipal  owner- 
ship had  long  been  advocated  by  the  man  who  for  the  time 
was  both  the  dictator  of  a  successful  party  and  the  chief 


THE   OPPOSITION    SLUMBERS  25 

officer  of  the  city ;  it  had  been  favored  in  the  platform  he 
had  compelled  the  party  to  adopt,  but,  beyond  this,  there  had 
been  no  indication  of  public  interest  in  the  question.  It  had 
not  been  discussed  to  any  extent  in  the  newspapers  or  on 
the  stump;  no  one  had  strenuously  advocated  or  vigorously 
opposed  it.  The  portion  of  the  Mayor's  address  which  dis- 
cussed it  received  perfunctory  treatment  only  from  the  local 
press,  and  the  enactment  of  the  ordinance  was  not  only 
without  a  negative  vote,  but  it  was  not  recorded  in  the  news 
columns  of  any  of  the  daily  papers  of  the  city.  Apparently, 
there  was  general,  but  careless  and  indifferent,  acquiescence 
in  the  Mayor's  plans.  Such  might  have  been  the  history  of 
the  initial  socialistic  step  of  one  of  America's  greatest  and 
most  rapidly  developing  municipalities  had  not  the  advocates 
of  the  change  overreached  themselves.  The  law  governing 
the  issuance  of  bonds  by  the  cities  of  Ohio  permits  them  to 
be  sold  for  certain  enumerated  purposes  only.  One  of  these 
purposes  is  the  purchase  or  erection  of  "electric  light  works, 
and  for  supplying  light  to  the  township,  hamlet  or  corpora- 
tion and  the  inhabitants  thereof.*  The  Mayor's  ordinance, 
as  formulated  and  adopted,  provided  for  bonds  for  the  pur- 
pose of  erecting  an  "electric  light  and  power  works"  and 
the  plans  of  the  Mayor  and  his  advisers,  Messrs.  Bemis  and 
Phelps,  plainly  declared  the  purpose  to  produce,  distribute 
and  sell  electric  current  for  power  as  well  as  for  lighting. 

*The  Longworth  bond  law,  adopted  April  29,  1902 ;  Session  laws  of 
Ohio,  Vol.  XCV,  pp.  318-322. 


26  MUNICIPAL   SOCIALISM 

Why  the  powers  vested  in  the  municipality  were  thus  pal- 
pably exceeded  will  probably  never  be  known,  but  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  assume  that  it  was  wholly  an  oversight  on  the 
part  of  the  Mayor's  young,  energetic,  and  able  legal  adviser ; 
the  chief  law  officer  of  the  city.  One  suggestion  in  this  con- 
nection can  not  be  overlooked.  It  is  that  as  Mayor  Johnson's 
prestige  had  been  somewhat  impaired,  and  was  in  danger  of 
suffering  further,  on  account  of  the  reluctance  of  capitalists 
to  provide  new  street  railway  lines  on  a  basis  of  three-cent 
cash  fares  and  with  anticipations  of  ultimate  purchase  by  the 
municipality,  a  device  for  overcoming  this  hesitation  was 
sought  and  seemingly  discovered  in  the  provision  of  a  mu- 
nicipal power  plant  which  could  sell  current  for  operating 
new  street  railways  at  less  than  cost,  and  saddle  the  differ- 
ence upon  other  customers,  or  hide  it  in  the  depreciation  and 
betterments  accounts  or  in  some  other  way  entail  it  upon 
the  taxpayers  of  the  city.  At  any  rate,  the  final  defeat  of 
the  project  was  made  possible  by  the  legally  unauthorized 
inclusion  of  the  purpose  to  manufacture  and  sell  "power." 
At  the  suggestion  of  a  taxpaper,  the  city  solicitor,  Honor- 
able Newton  D.  Baker,  was  obliged  either  to  institute  suit 
to  test  the  legality  of  the  proposed  bond  issue  or  to  permit 
such  an  action  to  be  brought  by  the  taxpayer  himself.  He 
chose  the  former  alternative,  graciously  according  permis- 
sion to  the  opponents  of  the  plan  to  designate  an  attorney  to 
assist  him.  Suit  for  the  purpose  indicated  was  brought  on 
June  17,  the  petition  relating  that  the  bids  under  the  ordi- 


CIVIC    CONSCIOUSNESS   AROUSED  2/ 

nance  had  been  received,  opened  and  the  highest  bidder 
selected.*  After  the  inauguration  of  this  action  the  Mayor 
probably  realized  or  was  properly  advised  that  the  ordinance 
would  not  sustain  a  valid  issue  of  bonds  and,  abandoning 
efforts  under  the  original  authority,  he  secured  the  introduc- 
tion, on  July  13,  of  a  new  ordinance  which  avoided  the 
fatal  defect  in  the  earlier  enactment. 

Civic   CONSCIOUSNESS  AROUSED 

In  the  meantime,  the  public  consciousness  had  come  to  a 
realization  of  the  fact  that  events  of  some  importance  to  the 
welfare  of  the  community  were  in  progress.  The  Board  of 
Public  Service  of  Cleveland,  to  which  the  defective  ordi- 
nance was  referred,  received  a  written  communication  from 
the  local  Chamber  of  Commerce,  requesting  that  action  upon 
the  project  be  deferred  until  the  advisability  of  the  proposed 
change  in  the  functions  of  the  municipal  government  could 
be  investigated  by  that  organization.  Although  treated  with 
but  scant  courtesy  by  the  board,  the  Chamber  of  Commerce 
appointed  a  committee  of  investigation  of  which  more  will  be 
related  hereafter.  At  one  of  the  board  meetings,  the  vice- 
president  of  the  electric  lighting  company  which  does  busi- 
ness in  Cleveland,  developed  the  important  fact  that  the  ad- 
ministration was  seeking  to  institute  municipal  ownership  for 

*This  was,  possibly,  necessary  verbiage.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  no 
bids  had  been  received. 


28  MUNICIPAL    SOCIALISM 

its  own  sake  and  not,  primarily,  in  order  to  secure  street 
lighting  at  a  lower  cost.  That  no  concession  in  the  price  of 
the  street  lights  would  cause  the  abandonment  of  the  project 
had  previously  been  known  to  a  few  and  was  subsequently 
admitted  by  the  Mayor  even  while  he  was  attempting  to  in- 
duce certain  councilmen  to  abandon  their  opposition,  but 
Vice  President  Scovil,  in  his  appeal  to  the  board,  made  the 
fact  clear  to  all.  He  said,  in  part : 

"We  would  like  to  know  whether  the  city  proposes  to  go 
ahead  with  this  municipal  lighting  scheme,  regardlesss  of 
what  concessions  might  be  made  by  the  company  now  fur- 
nishing the  light.  We  would  like  to  know  whether  this  is 
being  advocated  only  for  the  sake  of  having  a  municipal 
lighting  plant  for  the  purpose  of  experimenting  along  mu- 
nicipal ownership  lines."* 

Mr.  Scovil  also  informed  the  board  that  his  company 
would  be  willing  to  "meet  the  city  more  than  half  way  in 
•the  matter  of  fixing  rates"  rather  than  to  enter  into  compe- 
tition with  a  tax-supported  city  plant.  At  a  public  hearing 
held  by  the  board  on  Monday,  June  8,  the  advocates  of  the 
plan  were  represented  by  Dr.  Bemis,  and  Mr.  Scovil  was 
heard  in  opposition,  t  Communications  were  received  from 

*The  Cleveland  Leader,  June  6,  1903. 

fDr.  Bemis  had  said  to  the  Cleveland  Leader  (see  its  issue  of 
June  7,  1903)  that  "I  expect  to  be  given  general  supervision  of  the 
proposed  electric  lighting  department  and  to  retain  my  present 
position,"  so  the  Board  really  had  before  it  the  chief  executive  of  the 


CIVIC    CONSCIOUSNESS   AROUSED 


the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  announcing  the  appointment  of 
its  committee  to  investigate  the  project,  and  from  the  So- 
cialer  Turnverein  urging  that  it  be  put  into  execution  with- 
out delay  "regardless  of  protests  or  opposition  from  any 
source."  Mr.  Scovil  renewed  his  suggestion  of  willingness 
to  consider  a  readjustment  of  prices.  In  this  connection,  it 
should  be  stated  that  the  lighting  company  has  supplied 
lights  at  very  low  rates  compared  with  the  average  for  other 
cities,  and  especially  low  when  considered  in  relation  to  the 
facts  that  it  has  never  had  more  than  a  twelve  months'  con- 
tract and  supplies  fewer  lights  than  are  taken  by  most  large 
cities.  The  progressive  reduction  in  the  rate  and  the  num- 
ber of  lights  supplied  are  shown  below : 


Number       Price  per 


of 

light 

Year 

lights 

per  year 

1893 

251 

$88.66 

1894 

253 

88.66 

1895 

335 

88.66 

1896 

484 

94-80 

1897 

854 

93-24 

1898 

879 

93-24 

1899 

890 

89.88 

1900 

892 

87.60 

1901 

977 

82.92 

1902 

1,096 

82.92 

1903 

1,099 

75.00 

Service 
Moonlight   schedule 

All  night,  every  night 


private  company  and  the  gentleman  who  hoped  to  be  the  chief  execu- 
tive of  the  public  plant  by  which  he  urged  that  it  should  be  super- 
seded. 


3O  MUNICIPAL    SOCIALISM 


THE   CHAMBER    OF    COMMERCE 

The  Chamber  of  Commerce  committee,  which,  assisted 
by  the  secretary  of  the  chamber,  Mr.  F.  A.  Scott,  prosecuted 
a  vigorous  and  searching  investigation,  consisting  of  three 
well-known  citizens  of  Cleveland,  Messrs.  Thomas  H.  Hog- 
sett,  E.  J.  Blandin  and  A.  B.  McNairy.  Messrs.  Hogsett  and 
Blandin  have  both  been  prominent  for  many  years  as  Demo- 
crats and  are  among  the  leaders  of  the  Cleveland  bar.  Mr. 
McNairy  is  a  manufacturer  and  a  Republican.  During  its 
investigations  the  committee  heard  Messrs.  Bemis  and 
Scovil,  Mr.  E.  B.  Ellicott,  city  electrician  in  charge  of  the 
municipal  street  lighting  plant  of  Chicago,  and  Mr.  Alex- 
ander Dow,  who  erected  and  for  some  time  operated  the  city 
plant  in  Detroit,  which  is  also  for  street  lighting  only.  Its 
report,  a  pamphlet  of  seventeen  pages,  was  made  public  on 
July  27.  It  strongly  condemns  the  project,  basing  its  opposi- 
tion principally  upon  the  ground  that  whatever  may  be  the 
proper  policy  of  a  great  American  city  in  regard  to  municipal 
ownership,  the  needs  of  Cleveland  in  other  directions  would 
require  all  the  capital  it  could  afford  to  invest  for  many 
years.  The  committee  reported  that  it  was  not  aware  of  any 
public  demand  for  a  city  electric  plant,  and  that  neither 
Mayor  Johnson  nor  Dr.  Bemis  had  alleged  the  existence  of 
such  a  demand  or  claimed  that  the  community  was  suffering 
from  oppressive  action  or  extortionate  rates  on  the  part  of 


BUSINESS    MEN    IN    OPPOSITION  3! 

the  electric  lighting  company.   Dr.  Bemis  was  quoted,  how- 
ever, as  having  asserted  that : 

"If  electricity  can  be  sold  low  enough,  it  can  take  the 
place  of  steam ;  it  can  easily  have  an  enormous  development 
for  power  and  lighting  purposes,  and  that  power  is  taking  the 
place  of  steam  and  gas." 

Another  argument  attributed  to  Dr.  Bemis  was  that  com- 
petition from  the  city  might  cause  the  existing  company  to 
reduce  its  prices,  and  that  if  this  were  to  result,  the  munic- 
ipal plant  would  have  "accomplished  its  mission."  The  com- 
mittee, however,  came  to  the  conclusion  that : 

"The  rates  of  the  local  company  are  not  unreasonable, 
but  on  the  contrary,  your  committee  finds  that  they  are  as 
low  and  in  several  cases  lower  than  those  in  other  cities  of 
a  size  comparable  with  Cleveland." 

s~ 

BUSINESS  MEN  IN  OPPOSITION 

The  committee  also  submitted  the  report  of  Dr.  Bemis,  on 
which  the  City  Council  had  adopted  the  ordinance  that 
proved  to  be  invalid,  attempting  to  authorize  a  bond  issue, 
to  a  critical  examination  which  showed  it  to  be  based  upon 
insufficient  data  and  misleading  in  its  conclusions.  It  was 
noted  that  some  of  Mr.  Phelps's  "detailed  tables,"  which 
were  the  basis  of  the  fundamenal  estimates  of  original  and 
operating  costs,  had  been  withheld  as  subject  "to  revision 
upon  further  study,"  and  that  when  asked  to  submit  them  to 


32  MUNICIPAL   SOCIALISM 

the  committee,  Dr.  Bemis  had  replied  that  they  were  inaccu- 
rate and  he  preferred  not  to  permit  their  examination.  The 
committee  alleged  that  in  the  single  item  of  preparing  the 
engine  house,  there  was  an  omission  of  $50,000,  and  that  if 
a  proper  allowance  was  made  for  the  value  of  the  land  be- 
longing to  the  city  which  it  was  proposed  to  use,  and  for 
other  omissions  the  real  cost  of  the  experimental  plant  pro- 
jected would  be  $505,750  or  about  35  per  cent  more  than  the 
estimates.  It  was  also  asserted  that  the  annual  cost  of  street 
lights  furnished  from  such  a  plant  as  that  contemplated  could 
not  be  less  than  $85  each.*  The  committee  found  that  both 
Chicago  and  Detroit  were  paying  more,  under  municipal 
ownership,  for  their  street  lights  than  Cleveland  and  that  the 
general  experience  of  city  governments  throughout  the 
United  States  proves  that  operation  by  public  officers  is  more 
costly  than  under  private  management.  It  argued  that  even 
if  the  rates  and  practices  of  the  electric  company  were  un- 
reasonable, which  was  denied,  the  proper  policy  for  the  city 
was  regulation  rather  than  ownership. 
It  declared : 

''Whenever  their  rates  are  excessive  they  can  be  made  un- 

*An  exerienced  electrical  engineer  suggests  that  the  projected  plant 
of  two  units  of  1,000  kilowatts  capacity  each  would  have  about  the 
most  expensive  combination  that  could  be  contrived,  as  half  of  its 
entire  capacity  would  have  to  be  kept  constantly  in  reserve.  With 
four  units  of  500  kilowatts  capacity  each,  but  one-fourth  of  the  aggre- 
gate would  be  required  for  reserve.  Any  plant  must  have  a  reserve 
equal  to  the  largest  unit  required  in  daily  use. 


CLEVELAND'S  IMMEDIATE  NEEDS  33 

lawful  and  reasonable  charges  established.  Whenever  their 
services  are  below  a  proper  standard  of  quality  or  their  meth- 
ods oppressive  or  unjust,  the  necessary  corrections  can  be 
required  by  law.  In  fact,  without  risking  a  dollar  of  the  city's 
credit  or  adding  a  mill  to  the  tax  rate  the  city  can  accomplish 
all  that  is  possible  through  a  municipal  lighting  plant  except 
to  require  that  the  business  of  supplying  electric  light  and 
power  to  the  citizens  of  Cleveland  shall  be  conducted  at  a 
loss." 

Another  objection  raised  was  to  the  use  of  the  city's 
credit  and  its  taxing  power  to  supply  a  service  of  which  rel- 
atively few  of  its  citizens  were  likely  to  avail  themselves. 
This  was  held  to  be  a  wrong  use  of  the  right  to  tax.  It  was 
suggested  that  if  the  city  authorities  could  not  be  induced  to 
abandon  their  project,  equity  demanded  that  the  bonds  issued 
should  not  be  a  general  lein  upon  the  city's  credit  but  only 
upon  the  property  and  revenue  of  the  plant. 

CLEVELAND'S   IMMEDIATE   NEEDS 

Attention  was  called  to  needs  of  the  city  which  were  de- 
scribed as  'Vital"  and  sufficient  in  their  aggregate  demands 
to  necessitate  a  selection  among  desirable  improvements  of 
those  most  requiring  immediate  expenditures.  Especially 
great,  said  the  report,  was  the  city's  need  for  pure  water,  for 
want  of  which  citizens  were  daily  dying  from  typhoid  fever 
and  other  diseases  due  to  a  polluted  water  supply.  Other 
needs,  preferred  by  the  committee  to  a  municipal  electric 


34  MUNICIPAL    SOCIALISM 

plant,  were  enumerated  as  follows:  new  viaducts,  sewers, 
parks,  public  buildings,  improved  harbor  facilities  and  better 
fire  protection.  The  committee  also  suggested  that  the  ques- 
tion whether  the  Merit  System  would  govern  in  the  selection 
of  the  employees  was  debatable  as  well  as  whether  the  city 
departments  were  so  well  handled  as  to  justify  public  eager- 
ness to  increase  their  number  and  functions.  In  conclusion, 
the  committee  earnestly  requested  the  City  Council  to  con- 
sider its  report,  expressing  the  belief  that  further  investiga- 
tion of  the  proposition  to  build  a  municipal  electric  plant 
would  enable  that  body  clearly  to  perceive  "the  inadvisabil- 
ity  of  proceeding  with  the  project."  In  this  paragraph  it  de- 
clared itself : 

"*  *  *  at  a  loss  to  understand  why  this  project  to 
build  a  municipal  electric  plant  should 'be  brought  forward 
by  the  city  authorities  at  this  time ;  and  your  committee  has 
been  unable  to  obtain  from  the  authorities  themselves  any 
sufficient  reason  for  this  improvement  being  advanced  over 
others  that  are  unquestionably  of  far  greater  importance." 

ROUGH  RIDING 

On  the  evening  of  the  day  on  which  this  report  was  made 
public,  the  City  Council  met  to  consider,  among  other  things, 
the  new  lighting  plant  ordinance.  The  Mayor  was  present  in 
accordance  with  a  resolution  inviting  him  to  attend  all  ses- 
sions which  was  passed  at  one  of  the  earliest  meetings  of  the 
present  Council,  and  under  which  he  is  entitled  to  the  priv- 


ROUGH    RIDING  35 

ileges  of  the  floor.  By  a  strict  party  vote  of  twenty-three  to 
nine  the  Council  refused  to  listen  to  the  report  of  the  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce  and  adopted  a  resolution  sending  it  to  the 
official  files  and: 

«*  *  *  in  answer  to  the  statement  from  the  committee 
that  it  has  heard  of  no  public  demand  for  the  construction  of 
a  municipal  electric  light  plant/' 

directing  the  clerk  to  transmit  to  that  body  a  copy  of  the 
platform  adopted  by  the  local  Democratic  convention  at  the 
beginning  of  the  previous  municipal  campaign  and  a  state- 
ment of  the  votes  cast  for  the  candidates  at  the  election 
which  followed.  The  discussion  on  the  bond  issue  ordinance 
which  ensued  was  extremely  excited  and  somewhat  per- 
sonal in  tone.  Mayor  Johnson  asserted  that  the  opposition 
was  due  to  pressure  from  all  the  local  lighting  companies,  in- 
cluding the  gas  companies,  and  that  in  this  they  had  the  as- 
sistance of  similar  concerns  from  all  over  the  country.  He 
declared  that  all  the  Democratic  members,  a  number  suffi- 
cient to  adopt  the  ordinance,  were  pledged  to  the  measure 
and  concluded  with  the  threat  that  he  would  drive  out  of 
political  life  any  Democratic  member  who  voted  with  the 
opposition.  As  the  discussion  progressed,  the  presence  of 
Democratic  opposition  became  manifest  and  two  members 
representing  that  party,  who  afterward  voted  with  the 
Mayor,  asserted  that  they  did  not  feel  that  they  were  elected 
as  advocates  of  a  municipal  lighting  plant  and  doubted  the 


36  MUNICIPAL    SOCIALISM 

wisdom  of  erecting  one.  The  leader  of  the  Democratic  op- 
position, a  councilman  at  large  whose  nomination  had  been 
opposed  by  the  Mayor,  declared  that  the  plans  for  the  plant 
had  not  been  properly  matured  and  that  he  was  convinced 
that  a  vote  in  favor  of  the  project  was  not  justified  by  the 
data  at  hand.  He  also  thought  that  the  report  of  the  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce  was  entitled  to  a  good  deal  of  weight.  The 
vote  which  followed  was  nineteen  in  the  affirmative  and  thir- 
teen in  the  negative,  one  negative  vote  being  cast,  however, 
for  the  purpose  of  moving  a  reconsideration,  so  that  the  real 
strength  of  the  opposition  was  twelve  votes.  The  number 
was  made  up  of  the  nine  Republican  members  and  three 
Democrats. 

THE   SPOILS    SYSTEM    AT   WORK 

Immediately  after  this  vote  was  recorded  it  became  evi- 
dent that  the  Mayor  hoped  to  obtain  the  two  votes  necessary 
to  change  the  result  and  to  secure  a  reconsideration  one  week 
later.  The  measures  resorted  to  during  the  week  involved 
the  utmost  exercise  of  the  power  of  the  "patronage"  of  the 
City  Hall  and  no  member  of  the  official  force,  who  could  aid 
in  bringing  pressure  upon  the  independent  members  of  the 
Council  to  reverse  their  position,  was  permitted  to  remain 
aloof  from  the  contest  or  to  allow  his  duties  as  an  employee 
of  the  public  to  conflict  with  his  activities  as  a  political  agent 
of  the  city's  chief  executive.  The  headlines  referring  to  this 


THE    SPOILS    SYSTEM    AT    WORK  37 

subject  in  The  Cleveland  Plain  Dealer  of  July  29,  1903,  are 
instructive,  particularly  as  that  paper  is  in  political  alliance 
with  the  Mayor.  They  are:  "To  Frighten  or  Persuade," 
"Mayor  Seeks  to  Drive  Bolting  Democrats  into  the  Fold" 
and  "Won't  Give  Up  Fight  for  the  Electric  Lighting  Plant." 
The  article  which  followed  declared  that  on  the  day  follow- 
ing the  rejection  of  the  ordinance  by  the  Council: 

"*  *  *  two  Democratic  mass  meetings  were  held  at 
the  City  Hall.  One  was  in  Mayor  Johnson's  inner  office  and 
was  composed  of  active  Democrats  of  the  third  ward,  con- 
stituents of  Stanton.  The  other  meeting  was  of  twentieth- 
ward  Democrats  and  was  held  in  the  outer  offices  of  the 
Board  of  Public  Service.  These  were  the  irate  fellow- 
wardsmen  of  Roche." 

As  might  be  supposed,  the  gentlemen  named  in  the  fore- 
going are  two  of  the  independent  Democrats  who  voted 
against  the  bond  issue.  Other  mass  meetings  were  held,  peti- 
tions were  circulated,  and  committees  demanded  that  these 
councilmen  should  vote  for  the  Mayor's  project  or  resign. 
In  the  meantime  less  spectacular  methods  were  resorted  to  in 
an  attempt  to  divide  the  Republican  vote  and  the  attention  of 
those  whose  support  was  hoped  for  was  called  to  the  polit- 
ical preferment  which  the  Mayor  had  obtained  for  two  former 
Republicans  who  had  come  to  his  assistance  in  earlier  con- 
tests. The  United  Trade  and  Labor  Council  of  the  city  was 
enlisted  "to  frighten  or  persuade,"  and  its  resolution 
"heartily  condemned"  the  Democratic  opposition.  Even  the 


38  MUNICIPAL    SOCIALISM 

final  resort  to  a  party  caucus  did  not,  however,  sway  the  in- 
dependents from  the  position  they  had  assumed  and  when  the 
final  vote  was  taken,  the  three  Democrats  who  had  registered 
their  opposition  a  week  earlier,  stood  steadfastly,  with  the 
nine  Republicans,  against  the  ordinance. 

A  FLANK   MOVEMENT   BY  THE   MAYOR 

The  Mayor,  with  his  usual  fertility  of  resource,  was  suc- 
cessful in  turning  a  bitter  defeat  into  a  half  victory  by  se- 
curing the  introduction  and  adoption,  by  a  three-fourths 
vote  and  under  a  suspension  of  the  rules,  of  an  ordinance 
calling  a  special  election  for  September  8,  and  submitting  to 
the  people  the  question  whether  $400,000  in  bonds  should  be 
issued  to  build  an  electric  lighting  plant.  To  do  this  he  had 
to  obtain  the  unanimous  support  of  the  Democratic  mem- 
bers of  the  Council  assisted  by  one  Republican.  It  was  de- 
cided to  submit  five  other  bonding  proposals  at  the  same 
election,  all  for  purposes  undeniably  within  the  legitimate 
field  of  municipal  activity. 

The  strenuous  week  during  which  an  effort  was  being 
made  to  undermine  the  opposition  in  the  Council  had  in  part 
prepared  the  public  for  an  expression  of  its  will  on  the 
question.  There  was  no  longer  any  danger  of  either  side 
succeeding  by  the  default  of  the  other.  The  public  had 
awakened. 


THE    SPECIAL    ELECTION    STRATAGEM    FOILED  39 


THE  SPECIAL  ELECTION  STRATAGEM  FOILED 

The  immediate  consequence  of  this  awakening  was  the 
organization  of  a  Citizens  Association  headed  by  Hon.  John 
C.  Hutchins,  a  prominent  member  of  the  local  bar,  who  had 
served  honorably  on  the  bench  and  as  city  postmaster  under 
appointment  from  former-President  Cleveland.  This  asso- 
ciation was  strictly  non-partisan  and  its  officers  were  all 
business  men  of  the  highest  local  standing.  Its  efforts  were 
intelligently  directed  and  continuous  up  to  the  date  of  the 
final  vote  and  to  them  is  chiefly  due  the  defeat  of  the  pro- 
posed change  in  the  policy  of  the  city.  A  preliminary  survey 
of  the  situation  by  this  association  convinced  its  executive 
committee  that  a  complete  expression  of  the  will  of  the  citi- 
zens of  Cleveland  could  not  be  obtained  under  the  call  for 
the  special  election.  This  conclusion  was  based  in  part  upon 
the  impossibility  of  conducting  an  educational  campaign 
covering  completely  a  city  of  425,000  inhabitants  within  the 
period  between  August  3,  the  date  of  the  ordinance  providing 
for  the  special  election,  and  September  8,  the  date  set  for 
it,  but  especially  upon  the  law  governing  such  special  elec- 
tions. This  statute  provides  that  when  a  special  election  to 
decide  whether  additional  bonds  shall  be  authorized  is  held 
within  any  city,  there  shall  be  but  one  polling  place  in  each 
ward.  The  city  of  Cleveland  has  twenty-six  wards  and  up- 
ward of  84,000  registered  voters.  At  ordinary  elections 


4<D  MUNICIPAL    SOCIALISM 

there  are  more  than  two  hundred  polling  places.  Its  laws 
provide  for  keeping  the  booths  open  for  twelve  hours  on 
election  day.  If  the  voters  are  equally  distributed  among  the 
twenty-six  wards,  they  would  have  had  to  cast  their 
ballots  at  the  rate  of  4^  per  minute  in  order  to  cast  a  full 
vote  at  the  special  election  within  the  period  permitted  by 
law.  Obviously  the  number  of  legal  voters  disfranchised  by 
the  physical  impossibility  of  voting  with  such  rapidity  would 
have  been  a  large  proportion  of  the  total,  especially  as  the 
population  of  the  different  wards  varies  greatly,  and  in  some 
wards,  the  average  speed  necessary  to  register  the  wishes  of 
each  citizen  would  have  been  much  greater  than  that  for  the 
entire  city.  Then,  too,  the  distances  between  the  outlying 
portions  of  some  of  the  wards  were  so  great  as  to  make  it  cer- 
tain that  many  could  not  afford  the  time  necessary  to  vote. 
These  distances  were  as  high  as  2)4  miles,  and  in  fifteen  of 
the  twenty-six  wards  exceeded  one  mile.  For  these  reasons 
and  on  account  of  the  cost  of  a  special  election,  more  than 
7,000  registered  voters  of  the  city  of  Cleveland  signed  a  pe- 
tition asking  for  the  abandonment  of  the  special  election 
with  the  understanding  that  the  questions  proposed  then  to 
be  presented  should  be  voted  on  at  the  regular  November 
election,  fifty-seven  days  later.  Being  convinced  that  the 
Mayor  and  the  City  Council  would  not  forego  the  oppor- 
tunity to  submit  the  question  at  an  election  in  which  they 
would  have  a  manifest  and  unfair  advantage  the  Citizens 
Association,  through  its  attorney,  presented  the  question  to 


A  FULL  VOTE   INSURED  41 

the  Supreme  Court  of  the  state,  and  promptly  secured  an  in- 
junction making  it  impossible  to  hold  the  special  election 
which  had  been  planned.  The  ground  for  this  injunction  was 
the  certain  disfranchisement,  so  far  as  this  question  was  con- 
cerned, of  a  numerous  body  of  voters  if  the  special  election 
were  held. 

A  FULL  VOTE  INSURED 

After  futile  efforts  to  secure  the  dissolution  of  this  injunc- 
tion, the  advocates  of  a  city  electric  plant  determined  to  risk 
the  submission  of  the  question  at  the  regular  election  when  a 
fairly  full  vote  might  be  secured.  Both  sides  then  turned  to 
the  work  of  convincing  the  electorate  of  the  wisdom  of  the 
policies  which  they  advocated.  The  city  press  was  no  longer 
closed  to  the  discussion  and  the  news  and  editorial  columns 
of  all  of  the  city's  newspapers  thenceforth  gave  evidence  of 
the  popular  interest  which  had  been  aroused.  The  sympathies 
of  the  press  were  largely  on  the  conservative  side  which  re- 
ceived the  support  of  The  Plain  Dealer,  The  Leader  and  The 
World,  leaving  to  the  other  side,  among  the  daily  papers 
printed  in  English,  only  the  lukewarm  support  of  The  Press, 
a  Scripps-McRae  publication  of  the  sensational  type.  While 
the  local  Democratic  speakers,  most  of  them  officers  of  the 
city  and  the  rest  candidates  nominated  by  Mayor  Johnson's 
influence,  devoted  a  good  deal  of  attention  in  their  public  ad- 
dresses to  arguing  the  lighting  plant  project  and  it  had  the 


42  MUNICIPAL    SOCIALISM 

support  of  the  Democratic  organization  the  Republican  party 
took  no  position  in  regard  to  it  and  its  speakers  ignored  the 
question.  This  deprived  the  Citizens  Association  of  the  ad- 
vantage which  goes  with  a  completely  organized  machine 
for  getting  out  voters  and  seeing  that  their  votes  are  fairly 
counted  but  the  loss  in  this  respect  was  more  or  less  com- 
pletely offset  by  the  feeling  on  the  part  of  many  Democrats, 
which  it  occasioned,  that  they  would  not  lose  their  "regu- 
larity" by  voting  independently  on  a  question  on  which  the 
Republican  organization  was  non-committal. 

METHODS  OF  THE  CAMPAIGN 

The  campaign  on  the  part  of  the  advocates  of  a  city  plant 
was  in  part  conducted  through  the  dissemination  of  printed 
arguments  and  that  of  the  Citizens  Association  was  almost 
wholly  on  that  plan  although  personal  canvasses  were  made 
in  a  few  restricted  localites.  The  following  extracts  from  the 
principal  document  circulated  by  the  advocates  of  the  plan 
are  illuminating  in  a  degree  that  ought  to  be  pleasing  to 
those  who  favor  the  duplication  of  lighting  apparatus : 

"One  of  the  propositions,  however,  strikes  at  the  monopoly 
now  held  by  the  electric  lighting  and  gas  companies  of  the 
city  of  Cleveland.  The  lighting  companies  now  receive 
nearly  $300,000  a  year  from  the  city,  and  knowing  that  a 
municipal  electric  lighting  plant  will  reduce  not  only  the  cost 
of  street  lighting,  but  also  the  cost  of  private  lighting,  the 
lighting  companies  have  combined  in  an  effort  to  defeat  the 


AN    ABSURD    MISREPRESENTATION  43 

proposition.  Of  course  they  do  not  want  to  lose  their  money, 
which  amounts  to  such  a  large  sum  by  reason  of  their  charg- 
ing exhorbitant  prices.  The  electric  lighting  company  alone 
gets  $115,000  a  year  out  of  the  city.  The  lighting  trust  is 
waging  a  desperate  fight  against  the  establishment  of  a  mu- 
nicipal electric  lighting  plant.  *  *  * 

*  *  *  Burglars  won't  like  it.  If  the  city  owned  its 
own  electric  lighting  plant,  it  would  be  possible  to  light 
the  residence  streets  with  electricity,  just  as  the  down-town 
streets  are  lighted  now,  and  at  no  greater  cost.  The  side 
streets  of  the  outlying  sections  would  be  as  brilliantly  lighted 
as  the  main  thoroughfares." 

AN  ABSURD  MISREPRESENTATION 

The  last  extract  is  particularly  interesting.  Cleveland  has 
573  miles  of  streets  giving  an  aggregate  length  of  3,025,440 
feet.  As  the  lights  on  the  "down-town  streets,"  Euclid  and 
Superior,  are  twenty-six  feet  apart  it  is  evident  that  to  light 
all  the  streets  with  equal  brilliancy  the  city  would  have  to 
have  1 16,363  arc  lights.  At  $50  each  per  year,  a  rate  consider- 
ably less  than  the  estimate  made  for  the  city  by  Mr.  Phelps, 
that  number  of  lights  would  cost  $5,818,150  per  annum  or 
more  than  twenty  times  as  much  as  the  city  now  pays  for  its 
entire  lighting  service  and  more  than  fifty  times  as  much  as  it 
pays  for  electric  lights.  The  same  document  asserted  that  mu- 
nicipal ownership  of  electric  lighting  plants  has  passed  the 
experimental  stage  in  this  country,  that  certain  suburbs  of 
Cleveland  which  own  their  lighting  plants  supply  relatively 


44  MUNICIPAL    SOCIALISM 

more  customers  and  make  lower  rates  both  for  private  and 
public  lighting  than  the  corporation  doing  business  in  that 
city,  that  the  latter  unjustly  discriminates  among  its  custo- 
mers and  that  some  fifty  Ohio  towns  and  cities  which  own 
such  plants  had  found  that  it  is  "cheaper  to  keep  a  cow  than 
it  is  to  buy  milk."  No  specific  assertions  of  fact  in  support 
of  these  contentions  were  made  in  this  document  with  the 
single  exception  of  the  statement  that  the  street  arc  lights 
of  Collinwood  (a  suburb  of  Cleveland)  supplied  by  a  munici- 
pally-owned plant,  cost  but  $52.41  per  annum  as  against 
$75  per  annum  in  Cleveland  under  contract.  No  reference 
was  made  to  the  fact  that  the  Collinwood  lights  are  not  oper- 
ated when  the  calendar  promises  moonlight. 

"BONDS  AND  TAXES" 

The  document  most  extensively  circulated  by  the  Citizens 
Association  was  entitled  "Bonds  and  Taxes,"  but  it  consisted 
of  extracts  from  a  somewhat  larger  pamphlet.  The  complete 
table  of  contents  of  the  latter  reads  as  follows : 

"What  will  the  proposed  municipal  electric  lighting  plant 
cost,  City  and  county  indebtedness,  Cost  of  improvements  to 
which  city  is  pledged,  Bond  issues  to  be  voted  upon  Sep- 
tember 8,  Can  we  stand  it?,  Danger  of  excessive  taxation, 
Waterworks  and  electrical  business  not  comparable,  The 
water  supply,  Compulsory  arbitration,  What  the  census 
shows,  Advantages  under  private  management,  The  right  to 
tax,  Every  resident  pays  taxes,  Tax-fed  competition  irre- 
sponsible, A  fundamental  business  principle  violated,  Prices 


"BONDS  AND  TAXES"  45 

for  street  lights — Chicago  and  Cleveland  compared,  Prices 
for  street  lights — Detroit  and  Cleveland  compared,  The  ex- 
perience of  Columbus,  The  experience  of  Toledo,  The  ex- 
perience of  Hamilton,  The  experience  of  Bowling  Green, 
Ohio;  The  experience  of  Xenia,  Ohio;  The  experience  of 
Lakewood,  Ohio ;  Price  and  number  of  street  lights  in  Cleve- 
land by  years,  Philadelphia's  experience,  The  Post  Office 
Department,  The  government  printing  office,  Political 
aspects  of  municipal  ownership,  Competition  in  electrical 
distribution,  Judge  Thomas  M.  Cooley  on  competition  in 
supplying  public  service,  Municipal  ownership  is  socialism." 

In  this  pamphlet  it  was  contended  that  competition  in  the 
production  of  electric  current  at  central  stations  and  its  dis- 
tribution therefrom  has  been  found  to  be  undesirable,  that 
this  had  been  urged  by  the  leaders  in  the  movement  to  build 
a  plant  in  Cleveland,  and  that  they  were  stultifying  themselves 
in  advocating  a  project  which  had  for  its  object  the  creation 
of  such  competition.  It  was  shown  that  the  arc  lights  sup- 
plied for  street  lighting  by  the  municipal  plants  of  Detroit 
and  Chicago  cost  much  more  per  year  than  those  obtained 
under  contract  in  Cleveland  and  that  this  is  also  the  case  in 
Lakewood  and  Hamilton,  Ohio.  The  sale  of  the  city  plant 
at  Xenia,  Ohio,  which  had  cost  $30,000,  for  $2,000  was  cited, 
as  was  that  of  Toledo's  $1,000,000  natural  gas  plant  for  one- 
tenth  of  its  cost  and  Bowling  Green's  $47,000  plant  for 
$12,000.  The  state  of  Cleveland's  finances  and  the  neces- 
sity of  early  large  additions  to  its  present  debt  were  also 
urged  as  reasons  for  abandoning  the  municipal  ownership 


46  MUNICIPAL   SOCIALISM 

project.  Through  the  public  press  detailed  histories  of  the 
failures  of  municipal  ownership  at  Toledo,  Columbus,  Ham- 
ilton and  Ashtabula  were  laid  before  the  people.  In  answer 
to  the  charge  of  unjust  discrimination  it  was  declared  that 
the  differences  complained  of  were,  in  most  instances,  based 
upon  actual  differences  in  cost  which  it  would  be  unfair  not 
to  recognize  and,  in  the  others,  were  in  recognition  of  spe- 
cial competitive  conditions  which  bring  into  operation  a 
principle  similar  to  the  "long  and  short  haul"  principle  of 
railway  practice.* 

The  distribution  of  documents  was  not  confined  to  the 
English-speaking  voters,  but  translations  in  all  of  the  lan- 
guages largely  represented  in  the  complex  population  of 
Cleveland  were  made  and  circulated. 

A  DECISIVE  VICTORY 

Such,  in  brief,  is  the  story  of  the  campaign.  At  its  close, 
the  vote  on  the  proposal  to  bond  the  city  for  $400,000  to  in- 


*The  application  of  this  principle  to  electric  lighting  may  need  ex- 
planation. It  arises  from  the  fact  that  the  owners  of  large  office 
buildings,  hotels,  etc.,  can  often  supply  their  own  electricity  very 
cheaply.  In  many  instances  a  central  station  can  take  these  contracts 
at  rates  below  the  cost  to  the  owners  because  their  acceptance  re- 
quires little  if  any  addition  to  its  capital  expenses.  If  then,  it  obtains 
more  than  the  actual  operating  costs  which  they  entail,  the  contri- 
bution to  taxes  and  interest  releases  other  lighting  from  a  part  of  its 
natural  burden  for  those  purposes. 


A  DECISIVE  VICTORY 


47 


augurate  municipal  ownership  in  the  electric  lighting  field 
was  taken.  The  result  by  wards  is  shown  below : 


Num- 
ber of 
ward 

Total 
vote 
on 
munic- 
ipal 
owner- 
ship 

Affirmative 

Negative 

Majority 

Num- 
ber of 
votes 

Per 
cent 
of 
total 

Num- 
ber of 
votes 

Per 
cent 
of 
total 

Affirmative 

Negative 

Num- 
ber of 
votes 

Per 
cent  of 
total 

Num- 
ber of 
votes 

Per 
cent  of 
total 

I  
2  
3.... 
4.... 

6;!*. 

I'.'.'.'. 

9.... 
10.  .  .  . 
II  — 

12... 
I3.... 
I4-... 

I7.... 

18.... 

19.... 

20.  ... 

21  
22  
23.... 
24.... 
25.... 
26.... 

2350 
2062 
2548 
2091 

1653 
2142 
2022 

1907 

!696 
1970 
1676 
2137 
1770 
2342 
2242 
1871 
2166 
2237 

2385 
1944 
2004 
2409 
2168 
2264 

2493 
2076 

875 
II5I 
1131 
Il62 
885 
940 
96l 
1090 

949 
1003 
719 
867 
906 
80  1 
933 

1222 
1149 

997 
1030 
902 
556 
879 
983 
939 
539 
624 

37-23 
55-82 

44-39 
55-57 
53-54 
43-88 

47-53 
57-i6 
55.96 
50.91 
42.90 

40.57 
5LI9 
34-20 
41.61 
65-31 
53-05 
44-57 
43-19 
46.40 

27-74 
36.49 
45-34 
41.48 
21.62 
30.06 

1475 

9n 

1417 
929 
768 

1202 

1061 

8l7 

747 
967 

957 
1270 
864 

J54i 
1309 

649 
1017 
1240 

1355 
1042 
1448 
1530 
1185 
1325 
1954 
1452 

62.77 
44.18 
55-61 
44-43 
46.46 
56.12 

52.47 
42.84 
44.04 
49.09 
57-Jo 

59-43 
48.81 
65.80 
58-39 
34.69 
46.95 
55-43 
56.81 
53-60 
72.26 

63.51 
54.66 
58.52 
78.38 
69.94 

600 

25-53 

240 

11.64 

286 

11.22 

233 
II7 

11.14 
7.08 

262 

100 

12.23 

4-95 

273 
202 

36 

14.32 
11.91 
1.83 

238 

403 

14.20 
18.86 

42 

2-37 

740 

376 

31  60 
16.77 

573 
132 

30-63 
6.09 

243 
325 

140 
892 

651 

2O2 
386 

HI5 

828 

10.86 

13-63 
7.20 

44-5* 
27.02 

9-32 
17-05 
56-76 
39-83 



Totals 

54,625 

24,193 

44.29 

30,432 

55-71 

1,848 

3.38 

8,087 

14.80 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  foregoing  that  the  conservative 
voters  outnumbered  the  advocates  of  municipal  socialism  in 


48  MUNICIPAL   SOCIALISM 

seventeen  of  the  twenty-six  wards  of  Cleveland.  Wards  one 
to  eigkt,  inclusive,  comprise  the  region  known  as  the  West 
Side,  which  is  the  portion  of  the  city  that  would  have  been 
served  by  the  proposed  lighting  plant.  Four  of  them  are 
found  on  each  side  of  the  question,  but  together,  they  gave  a 
majority  of  385  votes,  or  2.30  per  cent  of  the  total  which  they 
cast,  against  the  project.  The  First  Ward,  which  includes 
Edgewater  Park  and  constitutes  a  residence  district  of  no- 
table attractiveness,  shows  62.77  per  cent  of  negative  votes. 
The  East-side  wards  voting  in  favor  of  the  bond  issue  were 
the  ninth,  tenth,  thirteenth,  sixteenth  and  seventeenth.  The 
first  three  of  these  constitute  the  region  between  the  lake  and 
river,  and  eastward  as  far  as  Oliver,  Perry,  Greenwood  and 
Jackson  streets.  This  region  includes  the  railroad  stations, 
the  down-town  shopping  district  and  the  city's  "tenderloin." 
The  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  wards  make  up  an  industrial 
region  largely  inhabited  by  foreigners.  The  heavy  vote 
against  the  project  in  wards  fourteen,  twenty-one,  twenty- 
two,  twenty-five  and  twenty-six  is  particularly  worthy  of 
note.  With  ward  twenty-four,  which  has  a  population  suf- 
ficiently less  homogeneous  to  account  for  the  relatively 
smaller  conservative  majority,  these  wards  constitute  the 
great  district  of  separate  American  homes  of  Cleveland.  It 
is  the  district  bisected  by  Euclid  avenue  and  includes  the 
eastern  park  system,  consisting  of  Wade  and  Gordon  parks 
and  the  new  Lake  Shore  boulevard. 


THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT  REMAINS  49 


THE  PERSONAL  ELEMENT  REMAINS 

With  almost  any  American  politician  except  Mayor  John- 
son there  would  be  little  doubt  that  the  decisive  defeat  of 
the  project  of  city  ownership  of  an  electric  lighting  plant 
would  cause  its  final  abandonment.  Prior  to  the  election, 
when  asked  what  effect  the  defeat  of  this  project  would  have 
upon  the  local  Democratic  program,  the  Mayor  replied,  with 
familiar  elegance  of  diction,  that  in  his  political  career  he 
had  "lost  heats  but  never  a  race."*  He  has  already  given 
evidence  of  his  intention  to  hold  the  local  Democracy  to  every 
detail  of  the  program  which  he  formulated  several  years  ago, 
and  the  only  doubtful  element  in  the  situation  is  his  ability  to 
secure  the  allegiance  of  a  majority  of  the  organization  in  the 
face  of  such  a  repudiation  of  one  of  his  principal  policies  by 
the  people.  Has  the  vote  against  municipal  socialism  in 
Cleveland  made  it  sufficiently  unattractive  to  practical  poli- 
ticians to  give  the  control  of  future  policies  into  the  hands 
of  the  conservative  section  of  the  Democracy  of  Cleveland 
and  to  relegate  to  private  life  the  leader  who  will  un- 
doubtedly decline  to  moderate  his  radical  program?  This  is 
a  question  which  only  time  can  answer.  Mayor  Johnson's 
term  will  not  expire  until  late  in  1905  and  in  the  meantime 
he  will  do  what  he  can,  in  spite  of  its  rejection  by  the  people, 
to  carry  out  the  plan  recently  defeated  at  the  polls.  It  is 

*Cleveland  Leader,  August  3,  1903. 


5O  MUNICIPAL    SOCIALISM 

asserted  that  the  suit  to  establish  the  legality  of  the  "lighting 
and  power"  bonds  which  were  authorized  by  the  unanimous 
vote  of  the  City  Council,  before  the  opposition  to  a  city  plant 
had  been  aroused  from  its  lethargy,  is  to  be  pressed  and  a  de- 
cision favorable  to  the  bond  issue  sought.  In  the  hope  of 
such  a  conclusion,  an  ordinance  appropriating  the  proceeds 
of  these  bonds  (if  and  when  issued)  for  the  purpose  of 
building  the  electric  plant  which  he  desires  was  introduced  in 
Council  in  December,  1903,  but  it  failed  of  enactment.  That 
a  decision  justifying  the  purchase  of  such  bonds  will  be 
obtained  is  extremely  unlikely. 

THREE  EASY  LESSONS 

The  lesson  to  the  great  cities  of  the  country  contained  in 
the  result  of  the  Cleveland  referendum  is  threefold :  To  their 
conservative  citizenship,  it  is  that  the  strength  of  radicalism 
is  by  no  means  proportional  to  the  noise  which  it  makes ;  to 
the  opportunist  politician,  it  is  that  advocacy  of  municipal 
ownership  is  not  always  an  easy  road  to  office,  and  to  the 
corporaion  officer,  it  is  that  the  public  service  corporation 
with  a  clean  record  can  sometimes  justify  its  ways  to  men, 
even  in  the  face  of  demagogic  attack. 

H.  T.  NEWCOMB. 
Washington,  D.  C,  Bond  Building, 
March,  1904. 


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